Looking at the front pages I have a strong suspicion Prof Ferguson was thrown under the bus at this precise moment to deflect the "Worst in Europe" headlines. They have partially succeeded in doing so.
Maybe the Government is happy with the Worst in Europe headlines. They will want to keep the population scared. A message that we passed the peak four weeks ago and deaths are falling would not help a gradual and orderly end to lockdown. Similarly, moving to the deaths in all settings figure has made them look worse. (It is true that deaths are still increasing in care homes but I don't see that that affects how you lift lockdown as most of us never go in one)
The press are going to go with "Worst in Europe" one day, and End The Lockdown Now" the next day, without even thinking about the irony of holding those two positions simultaneously.
I despise Farage's politics, however he didn't break the lockdown rules for personal reasons. Whether I like him or not he is a journalist and he went to report on a news story. That is not against the rules.
If Carole Cadwaldr (sp?) or Robert Peston or Piers Morgan or other journalists I dislike did the same thing it would be the same.
No matter how bad things get healthwise it is not OK to tell journalists they can't report the news.
In way way is Farage a journalist - speaking as a former NEC member of the NUJ
With all due respect union affiliations are not what makes you a journalist. Whether we like him or not he is, he reports on the news and has a show on LBC. He's every bit as much a journalists as Carole Cadwaldr etc
Farage is not a journalist. He is a politician who is published.
Well politicians aren't locked down either are they if their work is political of nature? But he's certainly not an elected politician.
He is however employed by a radio station not a Parliament to broadcast. He is a former politician who is now a journalist.
Anyway Prof Ferguson has been found and swiftly tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion for breaking the rules just as the Scottish Chief Medical Officer was. He's yesterday's news. Today's news is still the lack of restrictions on flights and the looming app disaster.
His modelling isn't yesterday's news though. It is still being used to guide our lockdown strategy. Swedish experts say it is effectively nonsense.
His own breaking of the rules/hypocrisy has nothing to do with how good or not his model is, that's another discussion entirely.
Given he is Boris acolyte you can be sure he is crap and his model will also be crap, only the model still to be proven.
Except he's not a Boris acolyte though. When he's veered into politics on Twitter its as a Remainer who seems keen on the Lib Dems.
He was there for his science not his politics or views on Brexit.
Well given he has no common sense, thinks he is above his own advice and lies like your average Tory, we are well shot of him. Will be shedloads of so called experts able to take over from the plonker.
I agree. It was a warning sign when the silly tosspot got the virus in the first place. Appreciate that might sound unfair, but he was highly influential in deciding the measures that would protect the population from infection - you would think he'd be able to protect himself.
Literally half of those front pages are of some bloke the public have never heard of having an affair, and the other half are from newspapers who would find a way to blame Boris if he personally cured every infectious disease on the planet.
I agree with TSE that easing the lockdown is going to be much, much harder than what's gone before. But that holds true for governments around the world, and we will have at least some advantage in learning from the experiences of those that are re-opening before us.
That worked well with the virus planning , they really used their 2-3 week advantage well.
Learning from previous failures to learn is the most valuable kind.
Unfortunately you don't see them learning , this trying to build their own app just so they can prove how macho and independent they are is another howler. They should have got logistics experts in over PPE , etc. These clowns do not listen or want to learn and are oblivious that they are not up to the task in hand. I have no confidence they will learn from mistakes, aka Hancock abusing a real front line expert yesterday over his failures, rather than asking her to come meet him and give him her experience. In the main most of the duds the Buffoon has surrounded himself with are not up to the job.
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
Anyway Prof Ferguson has been found and swiftly tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion for breaking the rules just as the Scottish Chief Medical Officer was. He's yesterday's news. Today's news is still the lack of restrictions on flights and the looming app disaster.
His modelling isn't yesterday's news though. It is still being used to guide our lockdown strategy. Swedish experts say it is effectively nonsense.
His own breaking of the rules/hypocrisy has nothing to do with how good or not his model is, that's another discussion entirely.
It shows he doesn't really, really, really think that lockdown is a sensible (or effective) measure.
And he has shown this quite elegantly.
The lockdown has definitely been effective at lowering the transmission rate.
Of course it has. But what was the cost/benefit?
Well given the virus is an exponential killer..
We don't know. As we have all noted on here, much of its exponentialness was people fitting a line to a series of data points. All kinds of anecdotes are emerging (yes, anecdotes) of people, communities having CV symptoms in December. We don't know. But at the moment we are facing an economic challenge the likes of which we won't have seen for decades.
The cost of a human life, as per the govt's calcs is £1.8m. By most estimates we have spent so far £100bn on anti-CV19 measures.
At some point there will be a decision that spending such sums on an ongoing basis is too much per lives saved.
The virus is definitely an exponential killer without mitigation, and our lockdown hasn't been particularly tough - manufacturing has been *thank fuck* allowed to carry on throughout !
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
Looking at the front pages I have a strong suspicion Prof Ferguson was thrown under the bus at this precise moment to deflect the "Worst in Europe" headlines. They have partially succeeded in doing so.
Maybe the Government is happy with the Worst in Europe headlines. They will want to keep the population scared. A message that we passed the peak four weeks ago and deaths are falling would not help a gradual and orderly end to lockdown. Similarly, moving to the deaths in all settings figure has made them look worse. (It is true that deaths are still increasing in care homes but I don't see that that affects how you lift lockdown as most of us never go in one)
They are not at all happy with those headlines. They are very keen to say you can't make comparisons.
Well, they have to have a response. But "Worst in Europe" will keep people at home. The election is in 4 years, by then these headlines won't matter, although obviously the results of more considered analysis of the response will be.
Literally half of those front pages are of some bloke the public have never heard of having an affair, and the other half are from newspapers who would find a way to blame Boris if he personally cured every infectious disease on the planet.
I agree with TSE that easing the lockdown is going to be much, much harder than what's gone before. But that holds true for governments around the world, and we will have at least some advantage in learning from the experiences of those that are re-opening before us.
That worked well with the virus planning , they really used their 2-3 week advantage well.
Learning from previous failures to learn is the most valuable kind.
Not specifically a Covid-19 comment but it does apply here too. People say, don't learn from your own mistakes; learn from others' mistakes. But I think you learn best from others' successes.
There were relative successes that they could have followed.
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
I do think there's some chance that the tendency of British officaldom to goldplate everything will ironically make our statistics look much worse than many other places that simply take a less rigorous approach.
For which the government will still be blasted as the worst liars in history, of course...
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
What a pity then that neither our politicians nor our journalists give a toss about the thousands of lives lost because on unrestricted air travel.
Password oddity: logging into Paypal I get a message purportedly from Norton (who I don't subscribe to) telling my password has been compromised, why not let it change the password and store it in my vault? I did, briefly, then change my mind and change the PayPal password to one I've never used before. Logging out and going back into Paypal, I get the Norton message again that the password has been compromised (not possible as not used before).
This looks like a classic scam. But googling "Norton password manager scam" doesn't show up anything of interest. Any suggestions?
On what type of device did the alert appear on and was the "alert" a browser window or something else? If it was something else I would be rebuilding my computer from scratch (but I'm in IT and it would take me 10 minutes to return things to how they were) in your case download and run Malwarebytes and see if it picks up any issues https://www.malwarebytes.com/malware/
Literally half of those front pages are of some bloke the public have never heard of having an affair, and the other half are from newspapers who would find a way to blame Boris if he personally cured every infectious disease on the planet.
I agree with TSE that easing the lockdown is going to be much, much harder than what's gone before. But that holds true for governments around the world, and we will have at least some advantage in learning from the experiences of those that are re-opening before us.
That worked well with the virus planning , they really used their 2-3 week advantage well.
Learning from previous failures to learn is the most valuable kind.
Not specifically a Covid-19 comment but it does apply here too. People say, don't learn from your own mistakes; learn from others' mistakes. But I think you learn best from others' successes.
There were relative successes that would could have followed.
I certainly think we should be analysing the various reliefs given around Europe to the lockdowns now and trying to work out what has been ok, what has been problematic and what needs further safeguards. There is much to learn.
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
You're dealing with people who think that the government should not have been criticised by journalists for the Narvik disasters in the Second World War. Tens of thousands of avoidable deaths do not figure in their thinking.
I want to qualify what I wrote earlier. Let's talk football.
The Government had a piss-poor first half and went about 5-0 down.
The second half they have played much better, probably narrowly winning it.
There may be several more legs to play.
The score was not 5-0 first half. It perhaps SHOULD have been, but Labour had 11 goalies on the pitch, arguing about which of them would take a penalty that never came....
Rather telling that you think the government is engaged in a match against Labour, rather than the Coronavirus.
Totally O/t, but excitement in the Cole household this morning. Not only is it the Patriarch's birthday, but our blue-tit has hatched, we think, eight chicks. Can't get a decent photo at the moment as the sun is in the 'wrong' place vis a vis the nestbox opening.
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
To be fair, I think that Iran and Ecuador, and probably China have more deaths than the UK. However, went to the local pharmacy yesterday and they have no PPE.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
The trouble is that a lot of those blue collar workers only work in the city because the white collar workers work there.
We need to come out of lockdown as soon as possible for the sake of our sanity, economy and freedom. But in a safe way. So we can't reopen everything yet.
So Boris needs to present a clear plan on Sunday to us coming out with stages and timescales. This will maintain the support of the nation.
We don't want the wishy washy 'plan' put forward by the Scottish executive who seem happy to restrict people's freedom for as long as possible.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
Agreed, though as we locked down a week or two after Germany, France, Spain and Italy we should also open up a week or two after them as well and see how their lockdown develops first
Entirely correct HYUFD. I am not proposing any significant lockdown changes until 1 June. But Boris should announce these on Sunday to give businesses 3 weeks to prepare.
Some enlightened companies are already planning for it and making big changes for the start of easing. It is obvious from what we have seen what is going to happen. It is going to be bad for plenty, some smug Tories will soon get to see how what they counted as lazy indolent scroungers manage to survive at first hand. As said earlier they will not find it a bed of roses.
Withdrawing the furlough will encourage people to stand on their own feet. We need to keep the 'lazy indolent scroungers' to a minimum!
The Ferguson story feeds the narrative about one rule for us....
Govt advisor/expert telling us all to stay indoors while he's meeting up with his blonde (married) mistress. In my coastal town more and more people are out and about, Ferguson won't help turn that around.
Totally O/t, but excitement in the Cole household this morning. Not only is it the Patriarch's birthday, but our blue-tit has hatched, we think, eight chicks. Can't get a decent photo at the moment as the sun is in the 'wrong' place vis a vis the nestbox opening.
Password oddity: logging into Paypal I get a message purportedly from Norton (who I don't subscribe to) telling my password has been compromised, why not let it change the password and store it in my vault? I did, briefly, then change my mind and change the PayPal password to one I've never used before. Logging out and going back into Paypal, I get the Norton message again that the password has been compromised (not possible as not used before).
This looks like a classic scam. But googling "Norton password manager scam" doesn't show up anything of interest. Any suggestions?
That sounds like either a real or fake Norton browser security plugin, or a fake Paypal site (of which their are many).
Try with a different browser, and check that you are actually on https://paypal.com and didn't get there by clicking a link.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
Gosh, it turns out that there are only two extremes of possible behaviour and no sensible middle path through. How quaint
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
I would like them to ask more informed questions highlighting areas of concern. Why on earth have we been so out of step on international travel, for example? Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel in relation to the NHS app? What safeguards are there going to be in respect of that data (making it inadmissible for any other purpose might be a start). What is being done about the vulnerable children who are supposed to be turning up at the hubs and have not been seen? A friend of my daughter is a teacher and has not seen several such children once in 6 weeks. One she is so concerned about she has offered to go and see him herself. Social Work say they don't have the right forms yet. Presumably a risk assessment? There is a horror story to come on such children.
In short there are lots of real issues, lots of areas of concern, lots of room for differences of view. What we get instead is the usual banalities of political journalists interested in who's up, who's down, whether they can contrive a gotcha and a really, really deep failure to understand the numbers, even by those who should know better (Conway and Peston, for example). Its frustrating.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
All the potential pub bankruptcy stories are about x's rent is due June etc.. If there is literally no market for the rent, no matter the tenant then the landlord has a big problem.
Anyway Prof Ferguson has been found and swiftly tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion for breaking the rules just as the Scottish Chief Medical Officer was. He's yesterday's news. Today's news is still the lack of restrictions on flights and the looming app disaster.
His modelling isn't yesterday's news though. It is still being used to guide our lockdown strategy. Swedish experts say it is effectively nonsense.
His own breaking of the rules/hypocrisy has nothing to do with how good or not his model is, that's another discussion entirely.
It shows he doesn't really, really, really think that lockdown is a sensible (or effective) measure.
And he has shown this quite elegantly.
The lockdown has definitely been effective at lowering the transmission rate.
Of course it has. But what was the cost/benefit?
As the R figure was below 1 before the lockdown then surely the pre lockdown advice had the bigger impact.
Ah, so when you said you wanted us to pay attention to and debate that graph what you actually meant was you wanted us to uncritically accept it as true as it backed up your dogmatic preconceived view.
Did you even read and process any of the criticism of that chart? Did you read and process any of the criticism of the person who produced the chart?
Its based on the hospital admissions data which showed that these peaked on the 2nd April 2020. So working back from that date gives a peak of infections around the 20th March. Its quite simple really. Its not a dogmatic preconceived view, its based on facts. Of course you may argue that the hospital admissions data has nothing to do with the rate of infection.
We need to come out of lockdown as soon as possible for the sake of our sanity, economy and freedom. But in a safe way. So we can't reopen everything yet.
So Boris needs to present a clear plan on Sunday to us coming out with stages and timescales. This will maintain the support of the nation.
We don't want the wishy washy 'plan' put forward by the Scottish executive who seem happy to restrict people's freedom for as long as possible.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
Agreed, though as we locked down a week or two after Germany, France, Spain and Italy we should also open up a week or two after them as well and see how their lockdown develops first
Entirely correct HYUFD. I am not proposing any significant lockdown changes until 1 June. But Boris should announce these on Sunday to give businesses 3 weeks to prepare.
Some enlightened companies are already planning for it and making big changes for the start of easing. It is obvious from what we have seen what is going to happen. It is going to be bad for plenty, some smug Tories will soon get to see how what they counted as lazy indolent scroungers manage to survive at first hand. As said earlier they will not find it a bed of roses.
Withdrawing the furlough will encourage people to stand on their own feet. We need to keep the 'lazy indolent scroungers' to a minimum!
I'm going to start a new career as a freelance photojournalist. My first assignment is a quick trip to Snowdonia to snap the local coppers enforcing the lockdown. I need a nubile "darkroom assistant" to hold my zoom, but I realise this isn't the ideal place to advertise the vacancy.
Literally half of those front pages are of some bloke the public have never heard of having an affair, and the other half are from newspapers who would find a way to blame Boris if he personally cured every infectious disease on the planet.
I agree with TSE that easing the lockdown is going to be much, much harder than what's gone before. But that holds true for governments around the world, and we will have at least some advantage in learning from the experiences of those that are re-opening before us.
That worked well with the virus planning , they really used their 2-3 week advantage well.
Learning from previous failures to learn is the most valuable kind.
Not specifically a Covid-19 comment but it does apply here too. People say, don't learn from your own mistakes; learn from others' mistakes. But I think you learn best from others' successes.
There were relative successes that would could have followed.
I certainly think we should be analysing the various reliefs given around Europe to the lockdowns now and trying to work out what has been ok, what has been problematic and what needs further safeguards. There is much to learn.
Agree with all of this. Also, while I am critical of the governments' handling of CV19, I do think you have to work forward from where you are, and not from where you think we ought to be. The mistakes previously made limit our options now. We need to accept that and move on from where we are.
I think the biggest bear trap for the government is coming up.
If the easing of the lockdown turns out to be a mistake then life becomes even more difficult for the government.
This is essentially right, but there are an interlocking set of bear traps. How do you make people uncomfortable enough to leave their homes when you want them to, and at what time? And what exactly do you tell them?
The Ferguson story feeds the narrative about one rule for us....
Govt advisor/expert telling us all to stay indoors while he's meeting up with his blonde (married) mistress. In my coastal town more and more people are out and about, Ferguson won't help turn that around.
Exactly. If Mr Lockdown himself thinks it's all a load of guff and doesn't really matter what are we proles to think?
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Tbh, I have little to no sympathy for property investors. If they all go bankrupt the physical property still exists and it will lead to a correction in rents that is badly needed for businesses to come back to the high street.
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
The trouble is that a lot of those blue collar workers only work in the city because the white collar workers work there.
Oh indeed, there's a lot of secondary support services in the City, which will be badly affected by changes in working habits of others. How many thousand people must work in all the coffee shop kiosks in the morning, and the bars in the afternoon - a few of them are probably the same people!
I think the biggest bear trap for the government is coming up.
If the easing of the lockdown turns out to be a mistake then life becomes even more difficult for the government.
This is essentially right, but there are an interlocking set of bear traps. How do you make people uncomfortable enough to leave their homes when you want them to, and at what time? And what exactly do you tell them?
We're going to email back our UK holiday as soon as the plan is hopefully published on the 8th and let them know we're taking it as soon as they're legally allowed to open. It's self contained and out the way on the lincolnshire coast (Not Mablethorpe or Skegvegas so should* touches wood be a lowish covid risk).
They are not being thrown under the bus, Sunak has said he will continue to fund furlough at at least 60% of pay past June, even though most businesses will likely have reopened by then.
Most businesses using furlough *will not* have reopened by then.
Most businesses should have reopened by then as they should be in a position to start from 1 June given sufficient notice by Boris on Sunday.
Train operators should be required to provide a normal service. Tube and train drivers have no contact with passengers. If necessary arrangements can be put in place to protect National Rail conductors/staff eg encourage people to buy tickets online.
Yes you guys keep saying this. But the advice that we have seen leaked is that they will NOT be told to reopen. You can run a hotel. For key workers as everyone else is WFH and no unneccesary journeys. With no bar or restaurant. Pubs shut. Restaurants. Cinemas. Cafes. Museums. Any business that cannot feasibly do 2m distancing shut. Thats what he's announcing.
Then we have schools. Schools are not reopening. A few kids at a time part time means that parents cannot work as no school or nursery. Nor can they hand kids to their parents as they're largely kept in at least semi-isolation. No staff means no business - it was a lack of staff availability which throttled tube services as was reported at the time in the trade.
You say "should be required to provide a normal service". OK. Lets take a bus where 2m distancing is required. How many people get on it? Forget the economics as all public transport will be paid for by the government into the future - how practically does it work? Why do you think WFH is staying in place?
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
Gosh, it turns out that there are only two extremes of possible behaviour and no sensible middle path through. How quaint
Journalists are of the people. They have to be otherwise their papers/radio/blogs would go unseen or unheard (cf. The Next Step). They ask questions that the people want asked, however crass and imperfect PB-ers might think they are. If you want different journalists you need to swap out the British public.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Absolutely. Our High Streets may never recover from this as retail centres. We need to prioritise changes of use wherever possible.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
All the potential pub bankruptcy stories are about x's rent is due June etc.. If there is literally no market for the rent, no matter the tenant then the landlord has a big problem.
Correct, and selling the property will be nigh on impossible
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
I would like them to ask more informed questions highlighting areas of concern. Why on earth have we been so out of step on international travel, for example? Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel in relation to the NHS app? What safeguards are there going to be in respect of that data (making it inadmissible for any other purpose might be a start). What is being done about the vulnerable children who are supposed to be turning up at the hubs and have not been seen? A friend of my daughter is a teacher and has not seen several such children once in 6 weeks. One she is so concerned about she has offered to go and see him herself. Social Work say they don't have the right forms yet. Presumably a risk assessment? There is a horror story to come on such children.
In short there are lots of real issues, lots of areas of concern, lots of room for differences of view. What we get instead is the usual banalities of political journalists interested in who's up, who's down, whether they can contrive a gotcha and a really, really deep failure to understand the numbers, even by those who should know better (Conway and Peston, for example). Its frustrating.
As I have said, the journalists ask questions they think their public want to be asked.
And you will be delighted to learn that you (and @another_richard) are not the only people in the UK to have noticed the air travel seeming anomaly.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Only aircraft leasing is going to be in worse shape than prime commercial property, once this all shakes out.
Just reading about the unfolding disaster that is the NHS app. I think this mistake adds an extra two weeks to the lockdown. Is Matt Hancock going to refund the treasury the additional tens of billions his idiotic decisions have cost so far?
We need to come out of lockdown as soon as possible for the sake of our sanity, economy and freedom. But in a safe way. So we can't reopen everything yet.
So Boris needs to present a clear plan on Sunday to us coming out with stages and timescales. This will maintain the support of the nation.
We don't want the wishy washy 'plan' put forward by the Scottish executive who seem happy to restrict people's freedom for as long as possible.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
Agreed, though as we locked down a week or two after Germany, France, Spain and Italy we should also open up a week or two after them as well and see how their lockdown develops first
Entirely correct HYUFD. I am not proposing any significant lockdown changes until 1 June. But Boris should announce these on Sunday to give businesses 3 weeks to prepare.
Some enlightened companies are already planning for it and making big changes for the start of easing. It is obvious from what we have seen what is going to happen. It is going to be bad for plenty, some smug Tories will soon get to see how what they counted as lazy indolent scroungers manage to survive at first hand. As said earlier they will not find it a bed of roses.
Withdrawing the furlough will encourage people to stand on their own feet. We need to keep the 'lazy indolent scroungers' to a minimum!
I'm going to start a new career as a freelance photojournalist. My first assignment is a quick trip to Snowdonia to snap the local coppers enforcing the lockdown. I need a nubile "darkroom assistant" to hold my zoom, but I realise this isn't the ideal place to advertise the vacancy.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Transport like schools is THE problem. Schools are simple - they aren't fully reopening. A few kids back at a time part time means parents can't work away from home. So they're out. Those who can might travel to work by bus train or tube. You can't enforce 2m distancing on these rolling petri-dishes. Tube and bus services initially curtailed by staff sickness and self-isolation not by the mayor (c.f. all those dead bus drivers).
If you ramp it back up, so we have for example a Jubilee train every 90 seconds in the peak. 2 distancing means each train holds a fraction of its normal passengers. You need an army of marshals to keep crowds off the platform. Out of the ticket hall. Down the street. With one-way systems. Assuming you have said army of marshals (they don't) and the ability to run 1 ways systems at every station (they don't).
Combine schools staying largely shut and public transport staying largely shut means businesses staying largely shut. Unless we are about to abandon distancing or any measures to keep this under control.
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
I would like them to ask more informed questions highlighting areas of concern. Why on earth have we been so out of step on international travel, for example? Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel in relation to the NHS app? What safeguards are there going to be in respect of that data (making it inadmissible for any other purpose might be a start). What is being done about the vulnerable children who are supposed to be turning up at the hubs and have not been seen? A friend of my daughter is a teacher and has not seen several such children once in 6 weeks. One she is so concerned about she has offered to go and see him herself. Social Work say they don't have the right forms yet. Presumably a risk assessment? There is a horror story to come on such children.
In short there are lots of real issues, lots of areas of concern, lots of room for differences of view. What we get instead is the usual banalities of political journalists interested in who's up, who's down, whether they can contrive a gotcha and a really, really deep failure to understand the numbers, even by those who should know better (Conway and Peston, for example). Its frustrating.
I've said all along the political journalists shouldn't be the ones asking the questions and it seems recently more and more journalists asking questions at the briefings aren't the usual away of political journalists - and the non-political ones tend to ask better questions.
It is quite right we need good and though questions asking. Trying to get a 'gotcha' or trying to make it personal - or asking the same question someone else asked 3 minutes ago so you can get a media clip of your own guy asking the question - is not good questioning.
The Ferguson story feeds the narrative about one rule for us....
Govt advisor/expert telling us all to stay indoors while he's meeting up with his blonde (married) mistress. In my coastal town more and more people are out and about, Ferguson won't help turn that around.
Exactly. If Mr Lockdown himself thinks it's all a load of guff and doesn't really matter what are we proles to think?
Yep, and part of the bigger picture in terms of mistrust in politicians, advisors and experts.
32% of voters- including 20% of Dem voters- say Reade allegations make them less likely to vote for Biden. 28% of Dem voters want to replace Biden with a different candidate.
We need to come out of lockdown as soon as possible for the sake of our sanity, economy and freedom. But in a safe way. So we can't reopen everything yet.
So Boris needs to present a clear plan on Sunday to us coming out with stages and timescales. This will maintain the support of the nation.
We don't want the wishy washy 'plan' put forward by the Scottish executive who seem happy to restrict people's freedom for as long as possible.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
Agreed, though as we locked down a week or two after Germany, France, Spain and Italy we should also open up a week or two after them as well and see how their lockdown develops first
Entirely correct HYUFD. I am not proposing any significant lockdown changes until 1 June. But Boris should announce these on Sunday to give businesses 3 weeks to prepare.
Some enlightened companies are already planning for it and making big changes for the start of easing. It is obvious from what we have seen what is going to happen. It is going to be bad for plenty, some smug Tories will soon get to see how what they counted as lazy indolent scroungers manage to survive at first hand. As said earlier they will not find it a bed of roses.
Withdrawing the furlough will encourage people to stand on their own feet. We need to keep the 'lazy indolent scroungers' to a minimum!
I'm going to start a new career as a freelance photojournalist. My first assignment is a quick trip to Snowdonia to snap the local coppers enforcing the lockdown. I need a nubile "darkroom assistant" to hold my zoom, but I realise this isn't the ideal place to advertise the vacancy.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
That's the Crown Estate clobbered then. I wonder if we'll need/be asked to bail out the Queen?
They are not being thrown under the bus, Sunak has said he will continue to fund furlough at at least 60% of pay past June, even though most businesses will likely have reopened by then.
Most businesses using furlough *will not* have reopened by then.
Most businesses should have reopened by then as they should be in a position to start from 1 June given sufficient notice by Boris on Sunday.
Train operators should be required to provide a normal service. Tube and train drivers have no contact with passengers. If necessary arrangements can be put in place to protect National Rail conductors/staff eg encourage people to buy tickets online.
Yes you guys keep saying this. But the advice that we have seen leaked is that they will NOT be told to reopen. You can run a hotel. For key workers as everyone else is WFH and no unneccesary journeys. With no bar or restaurant. Pubs shut. Restaurants. Cinemas. Cafes. Museums. Any business that cannot feasibly do 2m distancing shut. Thats what he's announcing.
Then we have schools. Schools are not reopening. A few kids at a time part time means that parents cannot work as no school or nursery. Nor can they hand kids to their parents as they're largely kept in at least semi-isolation. No staff means no business - it was a lack of staff availability which throttled tube services as was reported at the time in the trade.
You say "should be required to provide a normal service". OK. Lets take a bus where 2m distancing is required. How many people get on it? Forget the economics as all public transport will be paid for by the government into the future - how practically does it work? Why do you think WFH is staying in place?
Stop chanting political slogans and *think*
I expect Boris to lay out a clear plan for most businesses to reopen from around 1 June. And ideally to set out an outline timetable for others such as gyms, pubs etc which will reopen later. This isn't 'chanting political slogans'. It's getting people back to work to save the economy.
Just reading about the unfolding disaster that is the NHS app. I think this mistake adds an extra two weeks to the lockdown. Is Matt Hancock going to refund the treasury the additional tens of billions his idiotic decisions have cost so far?
THey should just check with pb, lots of us with different bents on the pandemic/lockdown are seeing this coming like a slow motion train wreck. Apple and Google aren't perfect but if you want something NOW that will work, and crucially be internationally fungible (Given we seem to have no will or desire to control our airspace) they're the only game in town.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Given that most of the five tests have now morphed into "ensure our NHS is not overwhelmed" I hope they note that the Nightingales are there and presumably available if currently mothballed.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Absolutely. Our High Streets may never recover from this as retail centres. We need to prioritise changes of use wherever possible.
Maybe, on the other hand the banks will begin to reposses properties where loans repayments have been missed and then sell them on for much less than the current value, creating a new baseline for rental yield. We could see a gigantic correction in commercial rental value and in some cases small business owners buying their own freehold.
Property investment has finally become seriously risky after years of lazy fatcat landlords leeching from society. It's not an unwelcome change.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Absolutely. Our High Streets may never recover from this as retail centres. We need to prioritise changes of use wherever possible.
Our IFA told us he'd got all his clients out of property about a year ago.
This pandemic is showing the piss poor standard of UK journalists in the 21st century. From those who announce a topic with a criticism of the government to those who are simply ignorant of everything which happens beyond the M25.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
It is important, imo, to have journalists challenge the government on any and every aspect of their handling of this crisis. Some questions will be acute, others off-target. Doesn't matter. The aim is to not allow the government any room to obfuscate or dissemble. If they know that every move will be dissected with the consequences painted all over the front pages then they will weigh up very carefully their moves and likely choose policies aimed at the good of the nation rather than the good of themselves.
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
I would like them to ask more informed questions highlighting areas of concern. Why on earth have we been so out of step on international travel, for example? Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel in relation to the NHS app? What safeguards are there going to be in respect of that data (making it inadmissible for any other purpose might be a start). What is being done about the vulnerable children who are supposed to be turning up at the hubs and have not been seen? A friend of my daughter is a teacher and has not seen several such children once in 6 weeks. One she is so concerned about she has offered to go and see him herself. Social Work say they don't have the right forms yet. Presumably a risk assessment? There is a horror story to come on such children.
In short there are lots of real issues, lots of areas of concern, lots of room for differences of view. What we get instead is the usual banalities of political journalists interested in who's up, who's down, whether they can contrive a gotcha and a really, really deep failure to understand the numbers, even by those who should know better (Conway and Peston, for example). Its frustrating.
As I have said, the journalists ask questions they think their public want to be asked.
And you will be delighted to learn that you (and @another_richard) are not the only people in the UK to have noticed the air travel seeming anomaly.
I don't think trace and isolate is going to be viable if tens of thousands continue to come into the country with no controls and no restrictions on movement etc. Certainly not in our most vulnerable areas like London where most of them will be. It's madness.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Totally O/t, but excitement in the Cole household this morning. Not only is it the Patriarch's birthday, but our blue-tit has hatched, we think, eight chicks. Can't get a decent photo at the moment as the sun is in the 'wrong' place vis a vis the nestbox opening.
How wonderful
Our three robins flew their nests in our greenhouse two days ago
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Absolutely. Our High Streets may never recover from this as retail centres. We need to prioritise changes of use wherever possible.
Maybe, on the other hand the banks will begin to reposses properties where loans repayments have been missed and then sell them on for much less than the current value, creating a new baseline for rental yield. We could see a gigantic correction in commercial rental value and in some cases small business owners buying their own freehold.
Property investment has finally become seriously risky after years of lazy fatcat landlords leeching from society. It's not an unwelcome change.
Let's hope so, every ten years or so we get a break from the bores that are desperate to tell us how much their house is worth. And more first time buyers get the chance to buy a place of their own.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
However you slice it this country will always be amongst the biggest in Europe. Nothing new there.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
Just reading about the unfolding disaster that is the NHS app. I think this mistake adds an extra two weeks to the lockdown. Is Matt Hancock going to refund the treasury the additional tens of billions his idiotic decisions have cost so far?
As I posted elsewhere - the problem with giving the app to a firm that doesn't specialise in Mobile development is that they wouldn't know the issues until it was too late. And no honest mobile development house would have taken the project because they knew the project was impossible.
Now it does seem that the software house knows there is an issue with the software and has a fix. But that fix is the sort of workaround you would do while saying if happens once in a while, while knowing it's every ten minutes but we aren't going to tell you that until you've signed acceptance off.
The biggest criticism to be levelled at the govt imo is their failure to enlist PB contributors to:
a) dictate the timing and terms of the lockdown; b) build the track and trace app; and c) ask all the questions at the daily prezzers.
A huge error.
Tbh, the government has been wrong on the timing of the lockdown, continued flights into the UK, locking the private sector out of testing, locking the private sector out of the app.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Absolutely. Our High Streets may never recover from this as retail centres. We need to prioritise changes of use wherever possible.
Maybe, on the other hand the banks will begin to reposses properties where loans repayments have been missed and then sell them on for much less than the current value, creating a new baseline for rental yield. We could see a gigantic correction in commercial rental value and in some cases small business owners buying their own freehold.
Property investment has finally become seriously risky after years of lazy fatcat landlords leeching from society. It's not an unwelcome change.
There will be changes. My daughter is currently being trained by Tescos to work on their home delivery call centre. Last week they delivered over 1m packages of groceries, about 5x what they do at Christmas. The waiting time for a slot is 3 weeks despite giving priority to the vulnerable. This will ease off but home delivery is likely to be at a massively enhanced level going forward. Our High Streets depend on leisure for much of their footfall. If restaurants and bars remain shut how will the bakers and butchers survive?
Totally O/t, but excitement in the Cole household this morning. Not only is it the Patriarch's birthday, but our blue-tit has hatched, we think, eight chicks. Can't get a decent photo at the moment as the sun is in the 'wrong' place vis a vis the nestbox opening.
How wonderful
Our three robins flew their nests in our greenhouse two days ago
The biggest criticism to be levelled at the govt imo is their failure to enlist PB contributors to:
a) dictate the timing and terms of the lockdown; b) build the track and trace app; and c) ask all the questions at the daily prezzers.
A huge error.
Tbh, the government has been wrong on the timing of the lockdown, continued flights into the UK, locking the private sector out of testing, locking the private sector out of the app.
Nothing in that was difficult to predict either.
Supposedly the software has been written by VMWare Pivotal Labs, a firm that does so much mobile development I cannot see it mentioned on their website.
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Absolutely. Our High Streets may never recover from this as retail centres. We need to prioritise changes of use wherever possible.
Maybe, on the other hand the banks will begin to reposses properties where loans repayments have been missed and then sell them on for much less than the current value, creating a new baseline for rental yield. We could see a gigantic correction in commercial rental value and in some cases small business owners buying their own freehold.
Property investment has finally become seriously risky after years of lazy fatcat landlords leeching from society. It's not an unwelcome change.
There will be changes. My daughter is currently being trained by Tescos to work on their home delivery call centre. Last week they delivered over 1m packages of groceries, about 5x what they do at Christmas. The waiting time for a slot is 3 weeks despite giving priority to the vulnerable. This will ease off but home delivery is likely to be at a massively enhanced level going forward. Our High Streets depend on leisure for much of their footfall. If restaurants and bars remain shut how will the bakers and butchers survive?
Bakers and butchers need to get into home delivery too for now.
I expect Boris to lay out a clear plan for most businesses to reopen from around 1 June. And ideally to set out an outline timetable for others such as gyms, pubs etc which will reopen later. This isn't 'chanting political slogans'. It's getting people back to work to save the economy.
So about social distancing...
You are insisting that we all go back to normal at the end of the month. Despite the ongoing pandemic. Despite the government's own medical advisory team. Despite the massive public support for the lockdown and the obvious public fear about going out that won't be swept away by one Boris speech.
Why are you insisting this? Because "Withdrawing the furlough will encourage people to stand on their own feet" - a political slogan. I understand the economic wrecking this is causing and all the non-CV19 medical crises also happening. But the notion that we just drop everything and restore status quo ante is at best hilarious and at worst a deeply cycnical throwing under the bus of people's health for political zealotry. Like Donald Trump.
Anyway Prof Ferguson has been found and swiftly tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion for breaking the rules just as the Scottish Chief Medical Officer was. He's yesterday's news. Today's news is still the lack of restrictions on flights and the looming app disaster.
His modelling isn't yesterday's news though. It is still being used to guide our lockdown strategy. Swedish experts say it is effectively nonsense.
His own breaking of the rules/hypocrisy has nothing to do with how good or not his model is, that's another discussion entirely.
It shows he doesn't really, really, really think that lockdown is a sensible (or effective) measure.
And he has shown this quite elegantly.
The lockdown has definitely been effective at lowering the transmission rate.
Of course it has. But what was the cost/benefit?
As the R figure was below 1 before the lockdown then surely the pre lockdown advice had the bigger impact.
Ah, so when you said you wanted us to pay attention to and debate that graph what you actually meant was you wanted us to uncritically accept it as true as it backed up your dogmatic preconceived view.
Did you even read and process any of the criticism of that chart? Did you read and process any of the criticism of the person who produced the chart?
Its based on the hospital admissions data which showed that these peaked on the 2nd April 2020. So working back from that date gives a peak of infections around the 20th March. Its quite simple really. Its not a dogmatic preconceived view, its based on facts. Of course you may argue that the hospital admissions data has nothing to do with the rate of infection.
Here's a simplified example to show why you can't just subtract average to find the peak.
11 days (which I think is time from infection to hospitalization) is an average. Let's imagine hospitalization after infection ranges from 7 - 13 days.
Imagine there were no new infections on 23rd March. When would we start seeing a reduction in hospitalizations? We would see it 7 days after the change.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
I suggest you get a better prescription on your glasses then. The government's management of the first stage of this health crisis has been disastrous, the more reprehensible because Britain was not in the first wave.
Just reading about the unfolding disaster that is the NHS app. I think this mistake adds an extra two weeks to the lockdown. Is Matt Hancock going to refund the treasury the additional tens of billions his idiotic decisions have cost so far?
THey should just check with pb, lots of us with different bents on the pandemic/lockdown are seeing this coming like a slow motion train wreck. Apple and Google aren't perfect but if you want something NOW that will work, and crucially be internationally fungible (Given we seem to have no will or desire to control our airspace) they're the only game in town.
There is also the question which perhaps the government has not asked itself, of what is the actual purpose of the track and trace app? Do we need it at all, especially if it will not report our every movement back to PHE HQ?
And we need to stop furlough after 30 June except for those businesses which legally cannot operate eg pubs.
A lengthy list just in hospitality, and don't forget all of the supply and support businesses below them who have no customers. Unless you extend the scheme to the wholesalers and the cleaners and the service companies and the suppliers then you'll not be able to reopen restaurants as they won't be able to get food to cook.
So thats hospitality. As the guidance remains WFH unless you cannot, that means public transport not running fully as you cannot social distance people on trains buses and planes. Which is all their staff, their support staff, the businesses who sell stuff to the people who use public transport.
Schools and nurseries? Can't reopen as you can't socially distance kids. A possible limited part time reopening is in the offing. I'd already covered wholesalers who supply school meals in the first paragraph, but as kids aren't going back their parents can't go back regardless of the sector they work in. Nor can you say "get the grandparents to look after them whilst you work" as they are in the protected group.
Etc etc. Its not as simple as "end the furlough scheme" when so many people will be unable to return to work. And thats to say nothing of businesses who will be thrown under the bus by "restaurants can reopen for takeaway only" which means no support which means they fail. With March rents barely paid it seems unlikely that June rents will be paid, so expect an avalanche of insolvencies from mid-June onwards...
Surely public transport needs to open as fully as possible to enable those who have to travel to work to do so as safely as possible. One of the things that caused overcrowding on the Tube at the beginning of lockdown was the reduction in serviced
Transport is going to be the biggest problem to solve, especially in the larger cities. White-collar staff in London are going to be WFH for probably the rest of the year, and an awful lot of companies will be looking at the whole business model of having thousands of people spend several hours a day and a lot of their income to all congregate together in the most expensive offices in the country.
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
Commercial property letting seems like a real bad game to be in at the moment.
Absolutely. Our High Streets may never recover from this as retail centres. We need to prioritise changes of use wherever possible.
Maybe, on the other hand the banks will begin to reposses properties where loans repayments have been missed and then sell them on for much less than the current value, creating a new baseline for rental yield. We could see a gigantic correction in commercial rental value and in some cases small business owners buying their own freehold.
Property investment has finally become seriously risky after years of lazy fatcat landlords leeching from society. It's not an unwelcome change.
Many of these "lazy fatcat landlords" are in fact our pension funds who have tried to use property as a better paying gilt. Such funds are going to get very badly burned, I'm afraid.
The biggest criticism to be levelled at the govt imo is their failure to enlist PB contributors to:
a) dictate the timing and terms of the lockdown; b) build the track and trace app; and c) ask all the questions at the daily prezzers.
A huge error.
Tbh, the government has been wrong on the timing of the lockdown, continued flights into the UK, locking the private sector out of testing, locking the private sector out of the app.
Nothing in that was difficult to predict either.
Supposedly the software has been written by VMWare Pivotal Labs, a firm that does so much mobile development I cannot see it mentioned on their website.
I think that's just an off the shelf appify your software solution.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
Those tens of thousands of deaths are nothing to do with the virus. They are caused solely by the Tories, don't yer know?
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
I suggest you get a better prescription on your glasses then. The government's management of the first stage of this health crisis has been disastrous, the more reprehensible because Britain was not in the first wave.
On a life-for-like basis our excess deaths seem to be much better than Belgium, Italy and Spain, comparable to France and much worse than Germany. Middle of the road.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
The comparison with Italy article on the BBC website last night was good, and I think it is clear we may not currently have the worst death toll in Europe on a comparable basis. Indeed thinking like that is not useful, and I think the best description of the UKs COVID situation is that it is broadly comparable with a bunch of Western European countries - e.g. Spain, France, Italy, Benelux, whilst clearly worse than others: Germany, most of Scandinavia, Austria, Portugal, Greece.
Although there will be slightly different lessons for each country, the overriding common one should be to make damn sure that your test, track, trace and isolate works to suppress case numbers, and that the your ongoing social distancing should be geared as a supporting factor around ensuring it does.
The biggest criticism to be levelled at the govt imo is their failure to enlist PB contributors to:
a) dictate the timing and terms of the lockdown; b) build the track and trace app; and c) ask all the questions at the daily prezzers.
A huge error.
Tbh, the government has been wrong on the timing of the lockdown, continued flights into the UK, locking the private sector out of testing, locking the private sector out of the app.
Nothing in that was difficult to predict either.
Supposedly the software has been written by VMWare Pivotal Labs, a firm that does so much mobile development I cannot see it mentioned on their website.
What chance that they designed the whole thing from the backend surveillance requirements first and foremost, then did the 'easy' consumer mobile app as an afterthought - failing to realise that what they needed it to do was technically impossible?
The biggest criticism to be levelled at the govt imo is their failure to enlist PB contributors to:
a) dictate the timing and terms of the lockdown; b) build the track and trace app; and c) ask all the questions at the daily prezzers.
A huge error.
Tbh, the government has been wrong on the timing of the lockdown, continued flights into the UK, locking the private sector out of testing, locking the private sector out of the app.
Nothing in that was difficult to predict either.
Obviously nobody knows less about this stuff than me but even I know that the NHS are crap at this spoddy neckbeard stuff and Apple/Google are not crap at it.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
I suggest you get a better prescription on your glasses then. The government's management of the first stage of this health crisis has been disastrous, the more reprehensible because Britain was not in the first wave.
On a life-for-like basis our excess deaths seem to be much better than Belgium, Italy and Spain, comparable to France and much worse than Germany. Middle of the road.
Those countries all have gigantic land borders that are impossible to close fully. What's our excuse?
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
I suggest you get a better prescription on your glasses then. The government's management of the first stage of this health crisis has been disastrous, the more reprehensible because Britain was not in the first wave.
Nope, this war not a one off battle. If we had locked down on Day 1 it wouldn't have solved anything because the virus is out there and without a vaccine until 60-80% of the population have had the disease it's going to be a major issue.
As Bill Gates stated the only time we will know which countries had the correct approach will be in hindsight when this is over. Until then except for untested people being sent into Care Homes (and that's a local level NHS issue as much as anything else) it's been a question of timing. And shutting things earlier is something that might have made things worse later.
I expect Boris to lay out a clear plan for most businesses to reopen from around 1 June. And ideally to set out an outline timetable for others such as gyms, pubs etc which will reopen later. This isn't 'chanting political slogans'. It's getting people back to work to save the economy.
So about social distancing...
You are insisting that we all go back to normal at the end of the month. Despite the ongoing pandemic. Despite the government's own medical advisory team. Despite the massive public support for the lockdown and the obvious public fear about going out that won't be swept away by one Boris speech.
Why are you insisting this? Because "Withdrawing the furlough will encourage people to stand on their own feet" - a political slogan. I understand the economic wrecking this is causing and all the non-CV19 medical crises also happening. But the notion that we just drop everything and restore status quo ante is at best hilarious and at worst a deeply cycnical throwing under the bus of people's health for political zealotry. Like Donald Trump.
I didn't say anything about 'going back to normal' on 1 June although I wish we could! Boris needs to set out a plan which reflects the need for social distancing at this time but which also enables the economy to restart. We can't all sit on welfare which furlough is effectively part of, forever.
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
I suggest you get a better prescription on your glasses then. The government's management of the first stage of this health crisis has been disastrous, the more reprehensible because Britain was not in the first wave.
Nope, this war not a one off battle. If we had locked down on Day 1 it wouldn't have solved anything because the virus is out there and without a vaccine until 60-80% of the population have had the disease it's going to be a major issue.
As Bill Gates stated the only time we will know which countries had the correct approach will be in hindsight when this is over. Until then except for untested people being sent into Care Homes (and that's a local level NHS issue as much as anything else) it's been a question of timing. And shutting things earlier is something that might have made things worse later.
Put another way, as at this stage would you rather be in the position Britain finds itself in or the position Germany finds itself in?
There will be changes. My daughter is currently being trained by Tescos to work on their home delivery call centre. Last week they delivered over 1m packages of groceries, about 5x what they do at Christmas. The waiting time for a slot is 3 weeks despite giving priority to the vulnerable. This will ease off but home delivery is likely to be at a massively enhanced level going forward. Our High Streets depend on leisure for much of their footfall. If restaurants and bars remain shut how will the bakers and butchers survive?
All of the supermarkets have done a significant amount of very fast work rapidly expanding home delivery. But this presents a Major Problem for them. Home delivery loses them all money on every single drop. Click and collect a smaller loss. So a huge expansion of this presents a major issue as they are going to spend a large amount of cash driving a business model which reduces their income.
When you shop in a supermarket you are marketed to constantly. People usually have a shopping list. The store needs to make you buy things not on the list, so it offers things that aren't on your list in your path - the power aisle you have to walk up with mega deals, the gondola ends offering deals and enticing you down an aisle that wasn't on your list. Very very hard to get those additional sales online. So they're reducing the amount they are selling to you AND increasing their cost to serve.
Nor does shutting stores / switching to dark stores help. A dark store still has the same staff mechandising stock onto shelves for the pickers to add to order tubs / trollies. And then the loss-making delivery at the end...
The biggest criticism to be levelled at the govt imo is their failure to enlist PB contributors to:
a) dictate the timing and terms of the lockdown; b) build the track and trace app; and c) ask all the questions at the daily prezzers.
A huge error.
Tbh, the government has been wrong on the timing of the lockdown, continued flights into the UK, locking the private sector out of testing, locking the private sector out of the app.
Nothing in that was difficult to predict either.
Supposedly the software has been written by VMWare Pivotal Labs, a firm that does so much mobile development I cannot see it mentioned on their website.
What chance that they designed the whole thing from the backend surveillance requirements first and foremost, then did the 'easy' consumer mobile app as an afterthought - failing to realise that what they needed it to do was technically impossible?
Given the software house involved, your answer will be the same as mine (very high).
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
I suggest you get a better prescription on your glasses then. The government's management of the first stage of this health crisis has been disastrous, the more reprehensible because Britain was not in the first wave.
On a life-for-like basis our excess deaths seem to be much better than Belgium, Italy and Spain, comparable to France and much worse than Germany. Middle of the road.
Those countries all have gigantic land borders that are impossible to close fully. What's our excuse?
We're a globalised, modern, interconnected nation.
Anyway Prof Ferguson has been found and swiftly tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion for breaking the rules just as the Scottish Chief Medical Officer was. He's yesterday's news. Today's news is still the lack of restrictions on flights and the looming app disaster.
His modelling isn't yesterday's news though. It is still being used to guide our lockdown strategy. Swedish experts say it is effectively nonsense.
His own breaking of the rules/hypocrisy has nothing to do with how good or not his model is, that's another discussion entirely.
It shows he doesn't really, really, really think that lockdown is a sensible (or effective) measure.
And he has shown this quite elegantly.
The lockdown has definitely been effective at lowering the transmission rate.
Of course it has. But what was the cost/benefit?
As the R figure was below 1 before the lockdown then surely the pre lockdown advice had the bigger impact.
Ah, so when you said you wanted us to pay attention to and debate that graph what you actually meant was you wanted us to uncritically accept it as true as it backed up your dogmatic preconceived view.
Did you even read and process any of the criticism of that chart? Did you read and process any of the criticism of the person who produced the chart?
Its based on the hospital admissions data which showed that these peaked on the 2nd April 2020. So working back from that date gives a peak of infections around the 20th March. Its quite simple really. Its not a dogmatic preconceived view, its based on facts. Of course you may argue that the hospital admissions data has nothing to do with the rate of infection.
Here's a simplified example to show why you can't just subtract average to find the peak.
11 days (which I think is time from infection to hospitalization) is an average. Let's imagine hospitalization after infection ranges from 7 - 13 days.
Imagine there were no new infections on 23rd March. When would we start seeing a reduction in hospitalizations? We would see it 7 days after the change.
I realise you can't get a precise date but as the peak of hospital admissions was on the 2nd April then the peak of infections was sometime around the 20th March, it can't be much different to that. This also shows that we were in the first wave of infections as the virus was raging here in January & February
At 6.00am on 5 live Rachel Burden opened with the worst deaths in Europe headline then provided the fairest and balanced commentary on the figures I have yet to hear. Maybe it a result of the 'BBC fact check' report on their website, which explains the dangers of relying on Europe comparisons and that a mature debate on the comparable death rates, not only here and in Europe but across the world will happen in the fulness of time. Indeed in discussion with her co presenter, Nicky Campbell, it seems that most texts they received from the public did not think the comparisons were reliable
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
That sounds like, finally, credit where it's due. Maybe at least some of the media are slowly waking up to the actual public mood outside their own rarified little bubble.
Credit for what are, no matter how you slice it, among the worst numbers in Europe?
Credit to the journalists, for finally realising their daily inanity of political point scoring was going down like a bucket of cold sick with the public.
So the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths are just to be ignored?
I'm not seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. I'm seeing tens of thousands of pandemic deaths in almost every major nation - and comparable numbers in almost every minor one.
I suggest you get a better prescription on your glasses then. The government's management of the first stage of this health crisis has been disastrous, the more reprehensible because Britain was not in the first wave.
Nope, this war not a one off battle. If we had locked down on Day 1 it wouldn't have solved anything because the virus is out there and without a vaccine until 60-80% of the population have had the disease it's going to be a major issue.
As Bill Gates stated the only time we will know which countries had the correct approach will be in hindsight when this is over. Until then except for untested people being sent into Care Homes (and that's a local level NHS issue as much as anything else) it's been a question of timing. And shutting things earlier is something that might have made things worse later.
Put another way, as at this stage would you rather be in the position Britain finds itself in or the position Germany finds itself in?
How do you get to be in Germany's position without Germany's prior healthcare system? And prior manufacturing system? And acceptance of reliance on the private sector for testing?
Comments
He is however employed by a radio station not a Parliament to broadcast. He is a former politician who is now a journalist.
I have no confidence they will learn from mistakes, aka Hancock abusing a real front line expert yesterday over his failures, rather than asking her to come meet him and give him her experience.
In the main most of the duds the Buffoon has surrounded himself with are not up to the job.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll outside the USA they all proclaimed yesterday! Has it? We are trying to record ALL deaths and in Scotland that includes deaths where a GP has said on the death certificate that Covid-19 MAY have contributed to the death. Are France, Spain and Italy announcing the numbers for ALL Covid-19 deaths or just hospital deaths on confirmed Covid-19 patients? We haven't had overrun hospitals like Spain and Italy. Indeed most of the Nightingales have lain empty thank goodness.
Struan Stevenson the ex-Tory MEP told me only yesterday that the Covid-19 death toll in Iran far exceeds 50,000 but the country is only reporting 6,340. Ecuador has shown news footage of bodies being abandoned in the streets similar to plague scenes here in the 14th century but its official death toll is 1,569. China has admitted it understated deaths by around 50% but it is still shown as having only 4,633 deaths. Around the world there could easily be in excess of 1 million deaths but British journalists and politicians who haven't forgiven the Tories for winning the 2016 referendum and the 2019 general election rush to proclaim failure on the part of our Government instead of talking up the success of the NHS in coping and the Government led logistics which, in spite of problems with some PPE has kept everything going.
Probably in 1940 these same journalists had they been alive would have been proclaiming the disastrous defeat in France instead of applauding the success in a flotilla of ships and little boats plucking almost one-third of a million men from the beaches of Dunkirk and the heroism of the 51st Highland Division in holding off the Germans to enable the rescue to take place!
https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1257939372449636352?s=20
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1257878107660455936?s=20
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1257842998546763777?s=20
What would you have the journalists do otherwise? Stand up when Boris comes into the room, keep quiet, and give him a round of applause?
There were relative successes that they could have followed.
For which the government will still be blasted as the worst liars in history, of course...
The Tube, even running a full service (which the Unions and their Mayor don't want to do) barely provides enough capacity for the blue-collar and key workers, without serious overcrowding.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52553237
Govt advisor/expert telling us all to stay indoors while he's meeting up with his blonde (married) mistress. In my coastal town more and more people are out and about, Ferguson won't help turn that around.
Try with a different browser, and check that you are actually on https://paypal.com and didn't get there by clicking a link.
Mistakes were made in the early days, but I think Sage and Cobra's single objective was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and in this they succeeded. It is clear they did not have the testing capability and ideally lockdown should have happened a week or ten days earlier
However, in discussing this with Jonathan Ashworth this morning on Sky, even Kay Burley, (yes Kay Burley) said 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'
In short there are lots of real issues, lots of areas of concern, lots of room for differences of view. What we get instead is the usual banalities of political journalists interested in who's up, who's down, whether they can contrive a gotcha and a really, really deep failure to understand the numbers, even by those who should know better (Conway and Peston, for example). Its frustrating.
https://twitter.com/cricketwyvern/status/1257714061250265090?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed&ref_url=https://politicalbetting.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/8676/politicalbetting-com-blog-archive-the-road-from-glencassley-the-last-horse-to-win-a-uk-race/p1
Then we have schools. Schools are not reopening. A few kids at a time part time means that parents cannot work as no school or nursery. Nor can they hand kids to their parents as they're largely kept in at least semi-isolation. No staff means no business - it was a lack of staff availability which throttled tube services as was reported at the time in the trade.
You say "should be required to provide a normal service". OK. Lets take a bus where 2m distancing is required. How many people get on it? Forget the economics as all public transport will be paid for by the government into the future - how practically does it work? Why do you think WFH is staying in place?
Stop chanting political slogans and *think*
And you will be delighted to learn that you (and @another_richard) are not the only people in the UK to have noticed the air travel seeming anomaly.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/05/just-273-people-arriving-in-uk-in-run-up-to-lockdown-quarantined
If you ramp it back up, so we have for example a Jubilee train every 90 seconds in the peak. 2 distancing means each train holds a fraction of its normal passengers. You need an army of marshals to keep crowds off the platform. Out of the ticket hall. Down the street. With one-way systems. Assuming you have said army of marshals (they don't) and the ability to run 1 ways systems at every station (they don't).
Combine schools staying largely shut and public transport staying largely shut means businesses staying largely shut. Unless we are about to abandon distancing or any measures to keep this under control.
It is quite right we need good and though questions asking. Trying to get a 'gotcha' or trying to make it personal - or asking the same question someone else asked 3 minutes ago so you can get a media clip of your own guy asking the question - is not good questioning.
I'm not sure they're getting the message
32% of voters- including 20% of Dem voters- say Reade allegations make them less likely to vote for Biden. 28% of Dem voters want to replace Biden with a different candidate.
Apple and Google aren't perfect but if you want something NOW that will work, and crucially be internationally fungible (Given we seem to have no will or desire to control our airspace) they're the only game in town.
Property investment has finally become seriously risky after years of lazy fatcat landlords leeching from society. It's not an unwelcome change.
Aussies would use much more colourful language in their response
a) dictate the timing and terms of the lockdown;
b) build the track and trace app; and
c) ask all the questions at the daily prezzers.
A huge error.
Our three robins flew their nests in our greenhouse two days ago
And happy birthday
Now it does seem that the software house knows there is an issue with the software and has a fix. But that fix is the sort of workaround you would do while saying if happens once in a while, while knowing it's every ten minutes but we aren't going to tell you that until you've signed acceptance off.
Nothing in that was difficult to predict either.
Butchers probably have a better chance.
You are insisting that we all go back to normal at the end of the month. Despite the ongoing pandemic. Despite the government's own medical advisory team. Despite the massive public support for the lockdown and the obvious public fear about going out that won't be swept away by one Boris speech.
Why are you insisting this? Because "Withdrawing the furlough will encourage people to stand on their own feet" - a political slogan. I understand the economic wrecking this is causing and all the non-CV19 medical crises also happening. But the notion that we just drop everything and restore status quo ante is at best hilarious and at worst a deeply cycnical throwing under the bus of people's health for political zealotry. Like Donald Trump.
11 days (which I think is time from infection to hospitalization) is an average.
Let's imagine hospitalization after infection ranges from 7 - 13 days.
Imagine there were no new infections on 23rd March. When would we start seeing a reduction in hospitalizations? We would see it 7 days after the change.
Just looked at flight radar and not a plane crossing the Irish sea at this moment
Although there will be slightly different lessons for each country, the overriding common one should be to make damn sure that your test, track, trace and isolate works to suppress case numbers, and that the your ongoing social distancing should be geared as a supporting factor around ensuring it does.
As Bill Gates stated the only time we will know which countries had the correct approach will be in hindsight when this is over. Until then except for untested people being sent into Care Homes (and that's a local level NHS issue as much as anything else) it's been a question of timing. And shutting things earlier is something that might have made things worse later.
When you shop in a supermarket you are marketed to constantly. People usually have a shopping list. The store needs to make you buy things not on the list, so it offers things that aren't on your list in your path - the power aisle you have to walk up with mega deals, the gondola ends offering deals and enticing you down an aisle that wasn't on your list. Very very hard to get those additional sales online. So they're reducing the amount they are selling to you AND increasing their cost to serve.
Nor does shutting stores / switching to dark stores help. A dark store still has the same staff mechandising stock onto shelves for the pickers to add to order tubs / trollies. And then the loss-making delivery at the end...